The Return of the Native eBook

Charley’s attentions to his former mistress
were unbounded. The only solace to his own trouble
lay in his attempts to relieve hers. Hour after
hour he considered her wants: he thought of her
presence there with a sort of gratitude, and, while
uttering imprecations on the cause of her unhappiness,
in some measure blessed the result. Perhaps she
would always remain there, he thought, and then he
would be as happy as he had been before. His
dread was lest she should think fit to return to Alderworth,
and in that dread his eyes, with all the inquisitiveness
of affection, frequently sought her face when she was
not observing him, as he would have watched the head
of a stockdove to learn if it contemplated flight.
Having once really succoured her, and possibly preserved
her from the rashest of acts, he mentally assumed
in addition a guardian’s responsibility for her
welfare.

For this reason he busily endeavoured to provide her
with pleasant distractions, bringing home curious
objects which he found in the heath, such as white
trumpet-shaped mosses, red-headed lichens, stone arrow-heads
used by the old tribes on Egdon, and faceted crystals
from the hollows of flints. These he deposited
on the premises in such positions that she should
see them as if by accident.

A week passed, Eustacia never going out of the house.
Then she walked into the enclosed plot and looked
through her grandfather’s spy-glass, as she
had been in the habit of doing before her marriage.
One day she saw, at a place where the high-road crossed
the distant valley, a heavily laden waggon passing
along. It was piled with household furniture.
She looked again and again, and recognized it to be
her own. In the evening her grandfather came
indoors with a rumour that Yeobright had removed that
day from Alderworth to the old house at Blooms-End.

On another occasion when reconnoitring thus she beheld
two female figures walking in the vale. The day
was fine and clear; and the persons not being more
than half a mile off she could see their every detail
with the telescope. The woman walking in front
carried a white bundle in her arms, from one end of
which hung a long appendage of drapery; and when the
walkers turned, so that the sun fell more directly
upon them, Eustacia could see that the object was a
baby. She called Charley, and asked him if he
knew who they were, though she well guessed.

The lad was in good spirits that day, for the Fifth
of November had again come round, and he was planning
yet another scheme to divert her from her too absorbing
thoughts. For two successive years his mistress
had seemed to take pleasure in lighting a bonfire on
the bank overlooking the valley; but this year she
had apparently quite forgotten the day and the customary
deed. He was careful not to remind her, and went
on with his secret preparations for a cheerful surprise,
the more zealously that he had been absent last time
and unable to assist. At every vacant minute
he hastened to gather furze-stumps, thorn-tree roots,
and other solid materials from the adjacent slopes,
hiding them from cursory view.